On the afternoon of April 6, in Hanoi, the Ministry of Information and Communications held a press conference to provide information on the activities of the ministry and the information and communications sector in the first 3 months of 2023 and the plan to implement the ministry's key tasks in the coming time.
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Scene of the press conference on the afternoon of April 6, at the headquarters of the Ministry of Information and Communications. Photo: TRAN BINH |
Presenting some violations of Vietnamese law by cross-border social networks, Mr. Le Quang Tu Do, Director of the Department of Broadcasting, Television and Electronic Information (ABEI, Ministry of Information and Communications), emphasized TikTok's violations.
Accordingly, TikTok does not have effective measures to control content that violates politics, opposes the Party and the State; fake news; nonsense, toxic content, even dangerous to children; uses automatic content distribution algorithms to create trends to spread sensational, click-baiting content, regardless of whether it is toxic, offensive content, causing negative effects on the community and young people; does not have effective control measures to prevent business activities, trading, advertising of counterfeit goods, fake goods, aphrodisiacs, functional foods of unknown origin, etc.
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Nonsense content on TikTok in Vietnam. Source: ABEI |
This social network also does not manage the activities of TikTok idols, so many TikTok idols tend to produce nonsense, uncultured content to target viewers' curiosity, and even create trends to profit from this content. Specifically, by allowing online challenges, TikTok idols can receive gifts from viewers, the more shocking, revealing, and offensive they are, the more gifts they will receive and the ability to convert them into money. It is worth mentioning that TikTok will receive 70% of the proceeds. TikTok also does not have effective measures to control copyrighted content.
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Political misinformation on TikTok in Vietnam. Source: ABEI |
According to Mr. Le Quang Tu Do, TikTok has no management measures to allow users to arbitrarily use other people's private and personal images to spread fake news, or defame or insult others. Arbitrarily filming or using other people's images without their consent violates Article 32 of the Civil Code, which stipulates the individual's right to image; Article 38 of the Civil Code, which stipulates the right to private life, personal secrets, and family secrets.
Acts that infringe upon the honor, dignity, and reputation of others must be compensated according to Article 592 of the Civil Code. If serious damage is caused, it can be handled according to Article 155 of the 2015 Penal Code (amended by Point e, Clause 2, Article 2 of the Law amending the 2017 Penal Code).
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Mr. Le Quang Tu Do talks to the press at the press conference. Photo: TB |
Mr. Le Quang Tu Do said that TikTok's violations led to consequences such as: creating a favorable environment for fake news to spread, causing economic damage and social instability; encouraging young people to imitate and follow bad and offensive trends, distorting the perception and lifestyle of young people, corrupting the cultural values of the nation; encouraging and facilitating illegal business activities; rampant copyright infringement.
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Harmful and dangerous content for children on TikTok in Vietnam. Source: ABEI |
According to Mr. Le Quang Tu Do, similar violations to TikTok have appeared on Facebook Reels and Youtube Shorts. Especially offensive content, advertising gambling games, selling drugs and food of unknown origin...
According to Mr. Le Quang Tu Do, in the past time, the Ministry of Information and Communications has coordinated with relevant ministries and branches to organize many meetings and issue documents resolutely requesting TikTok and other cross-border platforms such as Facebook and Youtube to proactively prevent and remove violating information, and at the same time develop tools and techniques to scan, detect and handle violating information.
“However, social media platforms using algorithms like TikTok are “dodging” the toolkit so that it cannot automatically scan and detect violations, making it difficult to handle violations on TikTok. With the huge amount of information generated every day on social media platforms like TikTok today, if social media platforms do not proactively and thoroughly block and filter with algorithms, blocking and removing violating content will be ineffective,” Mr. Le Quang Tu Do emphasized.
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Toxic trending content on TikTok in Vietnam. Source: ABEI |
In the coming time, the Ministry of Information and Communications will synchronously deploy legal, economic, technical, diplomatic, and communications solutions... to require cross-border platforms to comply with Vietnamese law.
The Ministry will organize an interdisciplinary inspection team with the participation of relevant ministries and branches such as the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the Ministry of Public Security, the General Department of Taxation, etc. to comprehensively inspect TikTok's operations in Vietnam; coordinate with relevant ministries and branches to comprehensively assess the impact and influence of TikTok on the community, especially young people.
The Ministry of Information and Communications and ABEI will enhance the effectiveness of the scanning tool including images and videos; organize conferences with multi-channel networks of Youtube, TikTok, Facebook to enhance the management efficiency of compliance with Vietnamese laws between cross-border social networks and MCNs/KOLs.
The Ministry of Information and Communications will also focus on developing a communication plan to promote and form healthy online cultural behavior trends; coordinate with the Ministry of Industry and Trade to manage the e-commerce service provision of TikTok Shop in Vietnam.
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